Con Or Artist?-Donald
Sutherland’s “The Con Artist” (2011)-A Film Review
DVD Review
By Sam Lowell
The Con Artist, Rossif
Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Rebecca Ronijn, Sarah Roemer, 2011
Sometimes you grab a film
just on a hunch, maybe an educated hunch but a hunch nevertheless. Sometimes
they meet expectations, sometimes not. The latter was the case with the film
under review The Con Artist. First off
in my reasons for taking a chance on the film ever since he was in the film
version of M.A.S.H. I have admired
Donald Sutherland’s work and I figured the add-on of one of his sons might be
interesting. Secondly I figured the plotline might have something to do with
con artists, a subject which since childhood when I hung around with my fair share
of them (and took a short spin in that milieu myself) has intrigued me.
Checking out what is new in conning.
Instead the con artist of
the title is an angry, kind of surly young man, Vince, played by Donald’s son
Rossif who had indeed just gotten out of stir after five years as the fall guy
for a car heist gone wrong but who also was some kind of mad monk artist-sculptor.
Hence con artist. The problem with Vince when he gets out is that he still owes
the head of his criminal syndicate, Kranski, played by the old man, a ton of
dough for losses in the botched heist. To get out from under he will have to go
back to the old auto theft hustle that got him in trouble in the first place.
In his spare time he also fools around with making sculpture-something out of
the Louise Nevelson “school” of taking waste materials and creating something
which people will declare is great art (and others will purchase).
Where Vince’s big break
comes in is when he rams into a high-pressure art gallery owner’s car and low
on dough talks her, Brenda, played by Rebecca Romijn, into doing the repairs at Kranski’s
car shop (where legal and illegal things go on). When she see his sculpture sitting
in the back of the shop she sees nothing but dollar signs. And so the running battle
between a life of crime and high art for Vince gets played out. Along the way
Vince falls for Brenda’s assistant, Kristen, played by Sarah Roemer, after they
play cat and mouse about having an affair when from about minute one anyone
watching could see they had eyes for each other-big time eyes. After a few
falls and a couple of breaks in helping bust up a major car ring heist Vince
heads for the high art life-and Kristen. Donald Sutherland wound up with a
bunch of slugs in him sitting on his butt on a docked freighter waiting to take
his own turn in stir. Maybe he will take up art. Just a so-so film here.
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